Alentejo, Portugal, Southern Europe, Europe

"Discover up close and personal the Portuguese Guadiana Valley, conserving a wide range of flora and fauna!"

Discover the breath-taking natural beauty of Southern Portugal’s Guadiana Valley and help to preserve the area’s natural heritage on this four-day tour. Located in the Alentejo region, the Guadiana Valley Natural Park is dominated by impressive contrasting landscapes, with deep gorges, river valleys and unique Mediterranean scrubland. In the steepest and most remote parts of the serras and valleys there has been little human intervention, allowing plants that are closely representative of the region’s original vegetation to thrive. This part of the Alentejo region epitomises the beauty of the south’s inhospitable wilderness.

On this tour, you’ll participate in a variety of activities including hiking, conservation work and a boat trip to discover the Natural Park area more intimately. You’ll stay in rustic accommodation, built in the style of old pastors’ shelters, at the scientific base camp of Monte do Vento at a site of Biological Interest. During your tour, you’ll dine in typical Portuguese restaurants, enjoy guided village tours where you’ll learn about local history and culture, and visit Pulo do Lobo, an impressive waterfall on the Guadiana River. Enjoy nature, and give something back by helping to conserve the Guadiana Valley Natural Park.

ImpacTrip offers unique volunteering trips and tours in Portugal, giving travellers the chance to enjoy unforgettable and responsible trips that combine volunteering with all the best features of a typical guided tour: getting to know the locals, dining at typical restaurants, absorbing Portuguese culture and enjoying exclusive activities. ImpacTrip encourages its travellers to escape from the pull of mass tourism and boring travel agencies and instead discover Portugal in a more responsible and local way, helping to fight social inequality and other hugely important issues by volunteering on local social and environmental projects.

ImpacTrip’s ‘Discovering the Guadiana Valley’ tour gives travellers the opportunity to help conserve a Nature Reserve by working collaboratively with the park to plant trees and control invasive species. Not only do travellers get something out of this tour, they also give something back. ImpacTrip’s mission is to change the way people travel, and to ‘offer different trips that make a difference’. They believe that until you know the local people, you can’t know the place, and therefore help tourists to ‘travel like a local’, offering culturally immersive and authentic experiences of Portugal. Through having a direct positive impact, it is hoped that tourists will come away from their holiday having enjoyed a truly unique and unforgettable experience.

Day 1

After meeting your guide at the Park, you’ll enjoy lunch in a typical Portuguese restaurant before going on a guided tour of the village of Mértola. In the evening there will be a ‘welcoming’ in the scientific base-camp at Monte do Vento, before dinner and later an evening ‘soiree’ to enjoy the natural environment.

Day 2

After breakfast, you’ll embark on an ‘interpretive trail’ of the River Terges and Cobre and see the impressive Pulo do Lobo waterfall. After a packed lunch you’ll have some free time in the afternoon to relax and explore. In the evening, after dinner, you’ll again enjoy an evening gathering to appreciate the nature all around you.

Day 3

This morning you will go on a boat trip, discovering more of the Guadiana Valley’s natural wonders. After lunch in a typical Portuguese restaurant you’ll have some free time before dinner, and later an evening stroll around the village of Mértola.

Day 4

For your final day, you’ll participate in some conservation and preservation activities, helping to stage an ‘intervention’ at the Nature Reserve. After lunch you’ll depart from Monte do Vento, marking the end of your tour.

Rate Conditions

The rate shown is a 'from' price per person, based on a group of more than six people travelling

Higher rates will apply for smaller groups

This tour will run with a minimum of two travellers

Click 'Ask a Question' to speak to the operator about this tour's availability, departure dates and costs

Cancellations made up to 30 days in advance will receive a 50% refund

Included

Accommodation

All meals

All Tours and Activities mentioned in the itinerary

Personalised permanent monitoring custom service in English

Personal accident insurance

Excluded

Flights

Transfers to and from the airport

Accommodation and meals before the beginning and after the end of the program

Transportation during the program

Personal expenses

Any other services or activities not mentioned in inclusions - if in doubt, click 'Ask a Question' to speak to the operator directly!